As we’ve seen lately, referees aren’t always fast enough to stop a fight before several unnecessary blows land. On occasion however, fighters simply stop fighting on their own and allow the referee to eventually recognize the bout is over.

Not every martial artist is like Derick Lewis, who seems to genuinely enjoying landing blows to a KO’d opponent. There are plenty examples of a fighter holding off on landing an additional blow, but none quite some obvious as a bout that occurred in Bellator. In that case, the winner was literally arguing with the referee that his opponent was out and the ref still failed to stop the bout

Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Late Stoppages

Recently at a Fight Night show held in Halifax, bad refereeing again took centre stage. Heavyweight/social media star Derrick Lewis was able to land several shots to Travis Browne after it was clear Browne was already knocked out.

There was also criticism of the job done by referee Todd Andersen in the Holm vs. De Randamie bout at UFC 208. Andersen has been accused of not getting between the fighters fast enough when the buzzer to end the round sounded. He has also been criticized for not taking one or two points from De Randamie for landing late hits on Holm.

Referee Has To Be Told Fighter is Unconscious

With all the headlines about bad referees, it makes sense to review the most abhorrent piece of officiating in MMA history.

At Bellator 136 Chad George literally had to argue with referee Milan Ayers that he had choked his opponent out. He stood on top of Mark Vorgeas and could have landed several clean shots as Ayers refused to step in.

George can be heard yelling “He’s out!”, but the official still wasn’t convinced. Ayers answered back “he’s not!” still unable to tell that Mark Vorgeas was unconscious. To prove his point, George just got up and walked away. Eventually Ayers was able to figure out Vorgeas couldn’t defend himself and the fight was stopped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dIK9FfXnKQ

Had Vorgeas been facing Derrick Lewis that night, things could have been a lot worse for him.

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Ian is a MMA writer based out of Toronto, ON Canada. An avid mixed martial arts enthusiast and passionate fan since he was born, Ian has been writing about mixed martial arts for over 5 years.